21 december 2012

Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the From the Free Press:

Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people—from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists—agree on one point: Science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the most common justification for religious faith. It is also the primary reason why so many secularists and religious moderates feel obligated to "respect" the hardened superstitions of their more devout neighbors.

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.

Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong, and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.

Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.

Beautifully written as they were (the elegance of his prose is a distilled blend of honesty and clarity) there was little in Sam Harris's previous books that couldn't have been written by any of his fellow 'horsemen' of the 'new atheism'. This book is different, though every bit as readable as the other two. I was one of those who had unthinkingly bought into the hectoring myth that science can say nothing about morals. To my surprise, The Moral Landscape has changed all that for me. It should change it for philosophers too. Philosophers of mind have already discovered that they can't duck the study of neuroscience, and the best of them have raised their game as a result. Sam Harris shows that the same should be true of moral philosophers, and it will turn their world exhilaratingly upside down. As for religion, and the preposterous idea that we need God to be good, nobody wields a sharper bayonet than Sam Harris.

— Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, and The Greatest Show On Earth

First we are told that we are lumbering robots with selfish genes at the helm. And now we are told that biology determines our values, not only what is good for us, but what ought to be good for us. Isn't there anything sacred?! No, and thank goodness. A hallelujah to Sam Harris for boldly going where few have dared go. The Moral Landscape is both a celebration of why clarity of reason is our most glorious weapon, and why even age old debates that have gone into hibernation ought to be awakened and challenged.

— Marc Hauser, Harvard College Professor, author of Moral Minds.

Reading Sam Harris is like drinking water from a cool stream on a hot day. He has the rare ability to frame arguments that are not only stimulating, they are downright nourishing, even if you don't always agree with him! In this new book he argues from a philosophical and a neurobiological perspective that science can and should determine morality. His discussions will provoke secular liberals and religious conservatives alike, who jointly argue from different perspectives that there always will be an unbridgeable chasm between merely knowing what is and discerning what should be. As was the case with Harris' previous books, readers are bound to come away with previously firm convictions about the world challenged, and a vital new awareness about the nature and value of science and reason in our lives.

— Lawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor and Director of the ASU Origins Project at Arizona State University. author of The Physics of Star Trek and Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science.

Does religion have a place in the public square? With it, can we have peace? Without it, can we have dignity? Join Christopher Hitchens, world-famous British journalist and anti-theist, and John Haldane, leading Scottish philosopher, commentator, and broadcaster, in a discussion on rights, dignity, faith and public life. The Veritas Forum at Oxford, 2010.

5 december 2012

the fibres give in to your starry warmtha lamp is called green and seescarefully stepping into a season of feverthe wind has swept the rivers' magicand i've perforated the nerveby the clear frozen lakehas snapped the sabrebut the dance round terrace tablesshuts in the shock of the marble shuddernew sober

Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara Proclamation Without Pretension Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born"ART"-parrot word-replaced by DADA,PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief

The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes thepoet a druggist TODAY the criticismof balances no longer challenges with resemblances

Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-theticized and hypnotized by the hyacinthsof the hypocritical-looking muezzins

CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-ACT CALCULATIONS

Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there isno such thing as importance there is no transparenceor appearance

MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTSBLIND MEN take the stage

THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding. I write because it isnatural exactly the way I piss the way I'm sick

ART NEEDS AN OPERATION

Art is a PRETENSION warmed by theTIMIDITY of the urinary basin, the hysteria bornin THE STUDIO

We are in search ofthe force that is direct pure soberUNIQUE we are in search of NOTHINGwe affirm the VITALITY of every IN-STANT

the anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics

At this moment I hate the man who whispersbefore the intermission-eau de cologne-sour theatre. THE JOYOUS WIND

If each man says the opposite it is because he isright

Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood-submarine formation of transchromatic aero-planes, cellular metals numbered inthe flight of images

above the rules of theand its control

BEAUTIFUL

It is not for the sawed-off impswho still worship their navel

Tristan Tzara

The Great Lament Of My Obscurity Three where we live the flowers of the clocks catch fire and the plumes encircle the brightness in the distant sulphur morning the cows lick the salt liliesmy sonmy sonlet us always shuffle through the colour of the worldwhich looks bluer than the subway and astronomywe are too thinwe have no mouthour legs are stiff and knock togetherour faces are formeless like the starscrystal points without strength burned basilicamad : the zigzags cracktelephonebite the rigging liquefythe arcclimbastralmemorytowards the north through its double fruitlike raw fleshhunger fire blood

Tristan Tzara

To Make A Dadist Poem Take a newspaper.Take some scissors.Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.Cut out the article.Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.Shake gently.Next take out each cutting one after the other.Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.The poem will resemble you.And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.

Thought

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.